I realised the other day that although I have two Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Handley-Page O/100 bombers, I'd never actually used them in a game. Since I have been pondering how best to do bombing scenarios for the game I thought that this afternoon would be a great chance to try them out. |
Here they are, heading off to bomb some German infrastructure. I put two targets towards the end of a 3' long table (which was also 3' wide). Each bomber had two lots of bombs, and the aim was to try and get bobs on both targets if possible.
Because I haven't used them much I gave the German defenders three Hannover CLIIIs. I'm not sure if they were really used as interceptors, but it looks like two-seaters of some kind may have been, as well as single-seater scouts. Anyway, for this game that's what I was going to use. They'd be interesting because although they lack the twin forward guns of the scouts (just a single one instead), they have an observer in the back with a rear-facing gun, so get more shooting opportunities.
The defenders would appear in dribs and drabs. At the start of each turn I rolled a D6 and on a 5+ a defending aircraft would appear. If one didn't appear then on subsequent turns the roll would be at +1 until one did. Then the appearance would reset to 5+ for the next defender. I used the clock-face placing method from
THIS POST to determine where the aircraft appeared, and set the distance at 2D6 + 1D3. Frankly this didn't work for me so in future games I'll use 2D6+3.
I used the spotting rules, so even after a defender appeared they had to spot the bombers.
The first defending plane appeared in front of the bombers at close range.
They flew past each other and the German plane turned to pursue. The bombers opened up with their rear guns. Both sides took some damage.
A second Hannover appeared, also in front of the bombers and also at close range.
The Handley Page is actually quite quick; in game terms it has the same speed as the Hannover. With enemy planes in sight they piled on the speed towards the target. The first Hannover was already behind them and kept up, but the second would have to turn and was moving to intercept the bombers after they'd reached the target.
Within 6" of the target all planes are subject to anti-aircraft fire. German planes are attacked by 1 dice whilst the attackers are hit by 2 dice. A score of '6' hits and criticals are tested as normal. The rear bomber took a near-direct hit that tore a large hole in the fuselage. The Hannover was lightly damaged.
Both bombers flew over one of the targets. I set the chance of getting a stick of bombs on target as 4+ on a D6, with a -1 for each of being at a speed greater than 3, not ending your move over the target and not having flown straight with no turns or sideslips. One bomber got a hit. The damaged bomber flew fast, trying to avoid being shot at by the Hannover, and consequently didn't get any bombs on target.
The second Hannover was moving to intercept, but took some damage from AA fire.
The Hannovers kept ending up in this position, which is not good for them. The bombers can fire their rear gun, whilst the Hannovers can't shoot into their 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock arcs. Needless to say having maintained a close pursuit of the bombers the first Hannover was not looking good and had suffered some serious damage. At this point its pilot was wounded as well.
The Germans' reinforcement die rolls had been terrible, and their third plane didn't appear until now. Meanwhile one bomber was lining up on the second target, whilst the other was looking to do a wide swing around it and head for home, having taken so much damage that it couldn't risk another anti-aircraft gun hit.
All of the planes in action. The damaged bomber kept up a steady fire, damaging the Hannovers.
A stray anti-aircraft burst finished off the damaged Hannover as it tried to head for home.
But the damaged bomber was shot down by the second Hannover. Meanwhile the other bomber managed to bomb the second target.
It would now be a race to see if the defenders could shoot down the bomber before it could get home. The green Hannover got in a long-range shot, but scored no damage.
Unable to catch the bomber it broke off and headed for home.
This left the yellow Hannover to finish off the British plane. It dropped into its rear, keeping up a steady fire. But the rear-gunner on the bomber did a great job, scoring a steady stream of hits back.
The bomber managed to get the Hannover into the position again. The bomber's rear-gunner kept on firing.
Damaged, but still flying, the bomber escaped. The Hannover was badly shot up and was lucky to survive.
I created some provisional Victory Points. I awarded the British 2VP for each of the first two hits by bombs on the targets. In addition they scored 1VP for each plane the Germans lost. The Germans scored 4VP for each bomber shot down. So in this game the British had a narrow win, with 4VP for bombs on target and 1VP for a shot down Hannover against the Germans' 4VP for the downed bomber. I'll need to see how these points pan out in some other games. I feel that maybe the Germans should get a VP for each target the British don't attempt to bomb, to stop the British hitting one target and then just running for home.
I realised after the game that I'd forgotten to apply the large target modifier to the German shooting, so possibly they would have put the bombers under more pressure. Again, I'll have to play this again and see how it works out.
Anyway, that's the Handley Page bombers blooded.
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